Conservative musings and comments.

Well, we’ve now been told that, by all respectable predictions, our country will be going into a recession by next year. Now, for once, i’m not in the mood for criticizing Gordon Brown and the Labour government, to be honest, there doesn’t seem to be anyone not to criticise, we’re all pointing the finger at each other and no one seems to have any ideas about how we’re going to get out of this mess.

It hurts me to say it but my own Party is just as useless at the rest, instead of providing ideas for how we can sort ourselves out, it’s just the same old government-bashing that the public must surely be tired of. I dislike a Labour government just as much as any Conservative, but now is not the time. Who really cares about Mandelson and Osborne and their love of Russian Aluminium magnates? Not me. I care more about my country, and the economic threat that we are encountering at the moment.

Personally, I think that the appointment of Mandelson is a masterstroke, the man is something of a political genius. He knows who to back, what to do, how to do it, and what’s more, he doesn’t care about who he upsets, as Gordon Brown well knows. I honestly congratulate the PM on this appointment, and if I was to make any criticism of the recent re-shuffle it would be that Darling was not shifted, as he is clearly not the man for the job.

Finally, we all complain about the EU from time to time, but now is surely the time this supranational organisation can come good? Free movement of persons, trade and goods… surely what is needed in times of an economic downturn? Let’s just get Thatcherite and sort this mess out, come on Britain!

Well today I have applied to attend the Party Conference! Hopefully I will go and if this is the case then I cannot wait. If anyone else is going and would like to meet up then don’t hesitate to get in contact – i’m on Facebook as ‘Joseph Michael Gibson’.

Well I watched last night and it was proven to me that the BBC completely misrepresent’s students in any way it possibly can. I might be wrong, but the audience last night were certainly of a left-wing bias, this even though if we were to be fully representative then the Right would have been in majority – CF being the largest student political movement in the country and all.

As well as this, the competition winner was an idiot! An arrogant neo-fascist who had no idea of what was practical in modern politics and when he got a bit upset did a bit of shouting like that putrid woman on the end. The answers were generic, e.g ‘oil!’ and I can honestly say IDS actually dominated that panel in terms of answers and substance.

Finally, when are people going to realise that the war in Iraq was the right thing to do! It was just went about in the wrong way! I’m sick of people complaining constantly, Iraq and Afghanistan should always have happened, no matter what your political persuasion. A country is always better liberated than not.

I read an interesting article the other day in which it was stated that whilst Cameron may be concentrating on reforming society and the family, people are only really interested in the economy. Which, ultimately, is true. If there is one thing that Gordon Brown can continually be attacked for, it is the current economic situation, however, believe it or not, if there is one thing we cannot attack Gordon Brown on at the moment, it is the economy.

This is for one plain simple reason, we don’t have any policy! I may be wrong in what I believe but I have always though that government should be about low tax and low state intervention – basically, let people have their own money and let them get on with it in their own way. Admittedly however, I don’t think this will ever happen again, now that we have centralised political parties and an intrusive, nanny state controlling us.

What are the reasons for this? Of course, the Left will scream Thatcher, as they constantly do when struggling to make any sort of criticism of the Right. However, in my opinion the reason for our modern political culture is the creation of the Welfare State in 1945, the Labour Parties crowning achievement, and forever the reason for toasting Clement Atlee and Aneurin Bevan.

In my opinion, whilst the Welfare State was ultimately a ‘nice’ idea, it has failed. All that it has managed to create is a culture of dependency in which there is an ‘underclass’ as Charles Murray might say, who have been inadequately socialised and seek to exploit the system in any way they can so as to run away from working or supporting a family that they procreate far too young, for example at sixteen. Yes, after WW2 our country needed the Welfare State, but at what cost?! Now look at us, our culture comprises of a loss of identity, an increase in crime, an increase in education through the devaluing of further education, and perhaps most telling, an increase in political apathy. Therefore, we are more likely to have been further educated, and still more likely to commit or be the victim of a crime, and even more likely not to care about a political party or what is going on in the world around us!

I think I am going to have to continue to further this piece and the opinions expressed in it over a number of weeks, as this is a week framework of an argument at the moment that needs to be fleshed out so as to give it’s real conclusion in a much stronger fashion. However, for the moment, you get the point, the Welfare State has ultimately ruined us, rather than Thatcherism. More to follow!

Now I am sure that when I was voting in our ‘monumental’ CF elections I was wooed by the promises that there would be a concerted effort to make national CF events that everybody could attend (in essence, something in the Midlands) and that the organisation would not be so London-centric… Well, I was duped!

I have more correspondence from ConWayFor then I do from CF, I don’t think, since the elections, I have recieved one e-mail telling me what they intend to be, or rather are, doing. This is pathetic, a national organisation supposedly representing every Conservative under 30 and yet nobody knows what they are doing? I’m sure there is very adequate reasons for this, such as the usual, e.g lack of money, lack of time or even lack of effort.

I must admit that I voted for the Forward Together ticket as I liked what they said, they were a team and so would have clearly been able to work together, and because they seemed like they genuinely cared by going out of their way to make a website, get in touch, and just present what they wanted to do. It was more about us and less about them. To be honest, I don’t regret voting for them and I wish more people had because we wouldn’t have the ghost of a committee that we have now!

The committee need to get their act together, as it is no suprise that we are not, as an organisation taken seriously, by either the Party or the members. A word of advice, get in touch with the members or risk being slated with everything you try and do in the Party later on (although I must excuse ABB from this, she is working on causes on her own it seems).

Well basically it is all the Labour Parties own fault, however, the way the media has turned on the leader that they supported has been quite astounding, not since Gary Glitter has someone fell from grace so severely, and aggressively. Obviously, as a Conservative, it doesn’t particularly bother me that much that Labour’s last great hope (who next – Miliband? Balls? HARMAN?!) is taking such a battering, in fact, i’m quite partial to participating myself! However, I do feel some sympathy for Brown as a man, how long is it before there is a very public breakdown? With this much scrutiny and this much pressure, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a certain political leader sectioned under the mental health act – after all, he is now a danger to society!

Oh well, here’s to June 09, when hopefully we won’t be in too much of a mess… Let’s just hope we’ve recovered a bit as a nation by then.

Having just read an article on the Times website about the Unions now flexing their muscles within the Labour Party and demanding to be allowed secondary strike rights, I must admit I had to laugh a little. Gordon Brown, “the greatest Chancellor EVER” according to many a Labour activist, is losing grip yet again, and only a week after his supposed relaunch was scuppered by one Mr. David Davis. Things are really bad for Labour, bless ’em, remember what happened last time the Unions flexed these muscles of theirs? – only one word need answer that – Thatcher.

Now it’s time for Labour to decide who they stick with: the Unions, and lose the next general election and possibly even split (remember the gang of four), or the Public, and the lose the next general election and go bankrupt? After all, the Unions made up 88% of Labour Party contributions in the first quarter of this year. So Gordon, the choice is yours, who do you alienate – the voters or the money men?

What made me laugh the most is that this doesn’t sound very New Labour at all, more like Labour under Wilson or Callaghan, over reliance on the Unions is a dangerous game, and it seems that Labour are going to lose out no matter what they do. Now I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this, but this would never have happened under Tony Blair, he most certainly had a way of finding funds and dealing with the Unions, as I’m sure Lord Levy will reveal any day soon!

Labour have certainly done what the Conservatives did in 1990, forced out the greatest Leader they hve had in modern times, and maybe at the time it seemed for the best, but right now I bet Tony is wearing his schoolboy grin that spun him out of so many a controversy.

Well he’s resigned today, which means that our party can go two ways – we either rip ourselves apart and fail to beat GB, or we try and keep together, I wouldn’t like to predict what will happen, but I must say that i’m impressed that there is at least still one conviction politician in the House of Commons.

I don’t think anyone should hide their opinions on matters in politics and so I will have to bring up one question that has been constantly plaguing me… Why is this man not party leader?! After watching him on Question Time, in which, in my opinion, he got everything right! It got me to thinking how much happier a lot of Conservatives might well be, at the moment we seem to be led by Centrists who have no real conviction and are just in politics for the money and the media attention (lets hope this isn’t true, but to me, it certainly looks that way).

We have a shadow Chancellor who many people don’t trust, although I admit when he started out I was a big fan, because he looks so young. And we have a Leader who many people I have spoken to say seems to come across as smarmy and complacent.

Of course, nothing will change with the position that we’re in at the moment, but I just don’t hope that our party ends up cocking things up and leaving these incompetent socialist wannabes in charge for another 5 years and 1 month, come the next general election.

The next leadership race that we have I sincerely hope that Alan Duncan runs, and if he gets to the final two candidates, he will most certainly get my vote.